


the way it was

by porterville



Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: Angst!, Denial, Guilt, M/M, emotional manupilation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-05-14 21:02:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5758738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/porterville/pseuds/porterville
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>God dammit. She really didn't want to deal with this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the way it was

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [swear to god the devil made me do it](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3461126) by [orphan_account](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account). 



Dee could see him as soon as she turned the corner after running up the stairs and knew he was going to be an obstacle. Mac, leaned against the door to her apartment, huddled over himself. Son of a bitch. He’d better get out of the way.

He didn’t. “Out of my way, Mac.” Dee kicked him in the side, at the same time vowing that if she scuffed her new Louis Vuittons then he would pay for it. Mac toppled to the side a bit. Dee saw that her shoe was fine, but she also saw Mac’s face. Tear stained, red, puffy. God dammit. She really didn’t want to deal with this. 

“Hey, Dee.” No, no, that pathetic crack in his voice and the lack of malice in his words would not get to her. She had been waiting all her life for one of these jackasses to be vulnerable, to need her, so she could turn her back and make them hurt. 

Instead, she sat down next to the jackass. “So, what happened? Dennis finally kick you out?”

Mac shook his head. “Nah, nothing like that.”

“Then why are you out here and not jerking off with him?”

Mac seemed to struggle. He didn’t even try to strangle her at the insinuation that he and Dennis were gay together. Dee wracked her brains, trying to find the answer - to the situation, to his problem, to Mac - but could only recall the night of their senior prom. Drunk, hazy, and Mac with the same look on his face. Dennis had walked out the door with his prom date, basically told Dee, Mac, and Charlie to go fuck themselves. Mac was angry.

_“Goddammit! We’re friends! We’re best friends! This is bullshit! How dare he make me think we’re not?!”_

He left, and Dee remembered not caring about where he ended up.

Goddammit, why did she care now, even a little bit? It was probably having that fuckin’ baby. Goddamn hormones. She convinced herself that, in the end, this was all about the fate of her apartment and who was living there. It sort of was, actually.

Mac spoke and brought her back. “S-sometimes I feel like - I feel like Dennis…” He looked at his hands, swallowed, started again. “Charlie keeps telling me to go live with him instead.”

“So, go live with Charlie!” Dee’s enthusiasm jumped at the idea of having one less person in her apartment.

“I really don’t want to sleep on that futon.” He looked away from Dee. “And…” He scratched at his face.

Here we go. Dee almost rolled up her sleeves. This was the gay conversation the whole gang had been gearing up for behind Mac’s back.

“I don’t think Dennis cares about me.” Mac said very quietly, almost guiltily.

Huh. Not exactly a gay confession, but she decided not to press it further. She’d leave that one for someone more comforting than her to deal with.

“And sometimes… He just makes me think that nobody else does either.” Mac was still talking, but he had reburied his face in his hands. Dee’s stomach did an uncomfortable flip. “I care about him so much, Dee. I don’t know what to do.”

Dee had always known that everyone in the gang was deluded except for her. This was a lot of honesty, honesty that she wasn’t prepared for. She had absolutely no idea what to say to that.

“I don’t think he cares about me, either.” However, she couldn’t keep those words from coming out.

Mac looked back up. He seemed surprised that she would even offer that up for discussion, and so was Dee, to be honest. Surprised, and instantly regretful. The last thing she wanted was for this to be a thing - it seemed like the gang had just gone back to normal after their brief split up and she didn’t want to be responsible for it happening again. They could just go on and keep pretending that what Dennis thought about them didn’t matter. The balance they had struck worked for all of them, more or less.

Thankfully, it wasn’t a thing. Mac didn’t even answer her with words, he just stared straight ahead and let the silence happen. 

“Do you wanna go to Paddy’s and get wasted?” Dee offered in return.

“Yes.” Mac stood and took Dee’s hand to help her up. She decided she could take this moment of weakness and shove it to the back of her mind with a bottle of beer, and she expected Mac to do the same.

**Author's Note:**

> Bio's work inspired me to wonder what would happen when Dee came back to the apartment. I seriously doubt any sort of conversation like this would ever happen in canon, but I can still dream of exploring the non-relationship between Mac and Dee. I feel like these two are really only linked by their relationships with Dennis, and somehow this was really fun to write.
> 
> Title is from "The Way It Was" by The Killers.


End file.
